Joseph Bonomi the Elder
Joseph Bonomi the Elder (19 January 1739 – 9 March 1808) was an Italian architect and draughtsman notable for his activity in England.
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[edit] Biography
Born as Giuseppi Bonomi in Rome, he made his early reputation there, then moved to London in 1767 where he was employed as a draughtsman from 1768 until 1781 in the practice of Robert and James Adam before setting up his own business. Excepting one year spent with his friend Angelica Kauffmann in Italy in 1783/4, he remained for the rest of his life in London.[1]
In 1789, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and from that time constantly exhibited architectural drawings. Joshua Reynolds, president of the Academy, had wished Bonomi to become a full Academician, regarding him as a fitting occupant of the then vacant chair of perspective. But the majority of the Academicians were opposed to this suggestion, and Bonomi became an associate only, and that merely through the president's deciding vote. This precipitated Reynolds' retirement from the presidency.[2]
In 1804 he was appointed architect of St. Peter's at Rome. He died in London in 1808.
[edit] Works
Notable works include:
- Parts of Towneley Hall near Burnley in Lancashire
- Barrells Hall, near Ullenhall, Henley in Arden Warwickshire, home of Lady Luxborough & the Newton family of Glencripesdale Estate, Argyll
- St James' Church, Great Packington, Warwickshire
- A mausoleum at Blickling Park, Norfolk
- Piercefield House in Monmouthshire
- Remodelling of Stanstead Park, Sussex (with James Wyatt)
- Alterations to Hatchlands Park, near Guildford, Surrey
- Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, St James's, London (1789-1790)
- Laverstoke House, Laverstoke, Hampshire (1798)
- Sections of Lambton Castle, near Washington, County Durham
- Longford Hall in Shropshire
[edit] Family
In 1775 he married Rosa Florini, Angelica Kauffmann's cousin.[1] He was the father of Ignatius Bonomi (1787-1870), also an architect, and of Joseph Bonomi the Younger (1796-1878), who became an eminent sculptor, artist and Egyptologist.
[edit] Literature
Bonomi is briefly mentioned in Sense and Sensibility. In the novel, Robert Ferrars says to Elinor (perhaps untruthfully) that his friend Lord Courtland had shown him three house designs by Bonomi and asked him to choose between them, but that Robert had burned them and advised Courtland to build a cottage instead.
[edit] References
- ^ a b
"Bonomi, Giuseppe". The American Cyclopædia. 1879. - ^ "Bonomi, Giuseppi". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
- Bryan, Michael (1886). Robert Edmund Graves. ed. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical (Volume I: A-K). York St. #4, Covent Garden, London; Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18, 2007: George Bell and Sons. p. 155. http://books.google.com/books?id=4GYCAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=DICTIONARY+AACHEN+AALST&as_brr=1.
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